Project:
Two Lives: A Generative Audiovisual Installation Exploring Algorithmic Composition Through Concatenative Synthesis, L-System, and the Visualisation of Artificial and Natural Life
This work is a audiovisual installation themed on “life”, composed of two independently running sub-modules: artificial life and natural life. The artificial life module features an alife-based visual, together with a concatenative synthesiser. The natural life module consists of a Max patcher (presenting video of human fertilised eggs and generating melodies) and an Ableton project (receiving MIDI notes from Max to drive instrumental performance). Each sub-module is equipped with an interaction tool, allowing the audience to manipulate sound and visuals in real time through hand gestures. At the same time, internal interconnections exist within each module: In artificial life, visuals directly influence sound generation in real time; In natural life, sound drives changes in the visual effects.
Initially, I was inspired by Gyuchul Moon’s project, Organic Algorithm with AI, which sonifies data derived from simulating Physarum. Even earlier, Sage Jenson had implemented the Physarum polycephalum algorithm to generate stunning dynamic visuals. The fascination of these cases lies in the “natural growth” processes of artificial life, which simulate the complexity and unpredictability of real life. However, as Jack has pointed out, in the field of AI—both in industry and in the arts—artificial life has been far less popular than machine learning. Nevertheless, in recent years, ALife has shown signs of revival. In this context, Jack created Tölvera, an open-source Python library for building alife visuals. He has also collaborated with other artists on some projects: Hreyfivera (2024), which integrates dance and alife through Mediapipe; FerroNeural (2023), which is a duo for magnetic discs and artificial life; MOTHERBIRD (2023), which combines live instrumental performance with alife visuals; and Pandora’s Mycophony (2023), a live coding performance using holographic displays. On the other hand, I was also inspired by projects rooted in real biological life—for instance, Italian artist Gaia Leandra’s performance in the European project On-the-Fly: by observing microorganisms under a microscope, she transformed visual data into sound in real time, enabling the audience to hear the sonic presence of microbial life from a microscopic perspective. Taken together, these recent works converge on the key notions of life, science, data, code, the non-human, and art. They demonstrate that artificial life constitutes a powerful medium for visual expression and interaction.
performance with l system